Librarians' Free Speech

Librarians’ Free Speech: The Challenge of Librarians’ Own Intellectual Freedom to the American Library Association, 1946–2007 Noriko Asato Abstract Traditionally the concept of intellectual freedom has developed out of the perspective of users’ rights to access library materials. The American Library Association (ALA) codified this with the Library Bill of Rights, Code of Ethics, and Freedom to Read Statement. However, librarians’ own intellectual freedom has been largely over- looked. Because of this, safeguarding librarians’ own free-speech rights has received little attention even within the profession. This article examines over a half-century of cases involving librarians’ attempts to defend their own intellectual freedom. The article also explores ALA’s conflicting responses and how it struggled to define intellectual freedom, especially in the late 1960s and 1970s when it established the Office for Intellectual Freedom, Freedom to Read Foundation, LeRoy C. Merritt Humanitarian Fund, and several com- mittees that investigated such cases. This article explores key incidents that led ALA to create policies or change directions regarding professional’s free-speech rights. It shows the struggle within ALA on the controversial idea of defending librarians’ intellectual freedom. Introduction Over the past half-century, intellectual freedom has become the heart of American librarianship’s professional identity, ethical standards, and vi- sion of service. This intellectual freedom, however, is usually defined and defended only from the perspective of the rights of information produc- ers and receivers. The intellectual freedom of information professionals such as librarians has not been considered a fundamental part of this paradigm. In other words, the profession celebrates the free-speech rights of librarians only in cases when they use it to promote access to materials. Other forms of expressions fall upon deaf ears. LIBRARY TRENDS, Vol. 63, No. 1, 2014 (“New Perspectives on Intellectual Freedom,” edited by Mark McCallon), pp. 75–108. © 2014 The Board of Trustees, University of Illinois 07_63 1 asato 075-105.indd 75 9/30/14 2:51 PM 76 library trends/summer 2014 Although the American Library Association (ALA) passed the Library Bill of Rights in 1939, it was not until 1946 that the association adopted the Statement of Principles of Intellectual Freedom and Tenure for Librarians as its first official document to define a librarian’s own intellectual freedom (American Library Association, 1952, pp. 41–42). It followed the model of a 1940 declaration by the American Association of University Profes- sors (AAUP) defending academic freedom. The ALA emulated its path in hopes of boosting the social status and confidence of librarianship as a profession, especially during the McCarthy era. The document states that academic freedom for librarians means helping citizens assume their responsibilities by participating in democratic society through library service. It includes “freedom in the selection of books, in the presentation of material on all sides of controversial questions, and in the dissemina- tion of information on all subjects.” It further states that librarians’ tenure is meant to allow librarians to “devote themselves to the practice of their profession without fear of interference or of dismissal for political, religious, racial, marital, or other unjust reasons.” In other words, ALA placed librarians’ freedom to provide information as the basis of library service and tied this with librarians’ status and job security. Although ALA recognized librarians’ intellectual freedom, it was because they should be able to provide unfettered information to library users, and not because they could contribute their own knowledge and work to improve society, like university professors. This seemingly unequivocal and uncomplicated definition of librarians’ intellectual freedom described in the 1946 statement, however, would later raise many questions and interpretations con- cerning how the definition applies to real situations and how the association actually should promote its execution. Librarians’ demand for a right to intellectual freedom created conflicts within ALA, and was heatedly debated many times in the following decades as we shall see. This paper examines the cases of several librarians who either were fired, lost their positions, or endured social stigma because they pursued their own intellectual freedom rights. These cases also affected ALA’s policies on the subject. The study classifies these cases into three categories of librarians’ intellectual freedom: (1) librarians engaged as professionals, (2) librarians exercising intellectual freedom as a right outside work, and (3) librarians exercising rights to intellectual freedom at the workplace. These categories are not meant to be exhaustive or exclusive to each other, as one incident could fall into more than one category. However, these categories help analyze ALA’s reactions to different ele- ments of incidents. The firstcategory typically includes defending library materials against censorship. For example, Daniel Gore (in 1968), John Forsman (in 1968), and Richard Rosichan (in 1969) lost their positions defending library sub- scriptions to alternative magazines that were opposed by the right-wing 07_63 1 asato 075-105.indd 76 9/30/14 2:51 PM librarians’ own intellectual freedom/asato 77 John Birch Society and local conservatives. These unjustly fired librarians, who observed the Library Bill of Rights and safeguarded library materials, inspired fellow librarians, especially young professionals, to establish the Freedom to Read Foundation in 1969 as well as the LeRoy Merritt Humanitarian Fund in the following year. The second category deals with cases where librarians sought their professional association’s support to defend their rights of intellectual freedom. For example, T. Ellis Hodgin (in 1969) was fired and became violently ostracized from the community where he lived when he joined a lawsuit against his daughter’s public school for requiring pupils to engage in religious practice. In another example, Michael McConnell’s contract for employment was cancelled (in 1970) by the University of Minnesota Library because he attempted to marry his same-sex partner. In another case, Zoia Horn (in 1972) was jailed for protecting the privacy of an anti– Vietnam War activist. Many librarians have trouble evaluating cases like these, which are not traditional defense-of-library situations but intellectual freedom struggles. This was the exact point of contention between leaders of the ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee who projected a nar- row window of defended behaviors and activists who demanded ALA provide institutional support for job security and intellectual freedom even when practiced outside of the workplace. The details of library activists organizing the Social Responsibility Round Table (SSRT) in the late 1960s and 1970s have been researched. Louise Robbins’s (1996) and Toni Samek’s (2001) books revealed how intellectual freedom became one of the central points of controversy during the Vietnam War era. However, this paper sheds light on how SRRT impacted ALA’s definition and policy on librarians’ intellectual freedom, which should be examined within the framework of a much longer pas- sage of time beyond the frame of Samek’s study. The third category specifies librarians’ intellectual freedom in the workplace. This includes “freedom of speech at work,” “whistle-blowing,” “racial discrimination,” and “exercising an individual’s religious and political beliefs.” Again these subcategories are not exhaustive. The most no- table case involves respected cataloger Sanford Berman (in 1999). He was forced to retire after becoming locked in conflict with his library admin- istration over library operations and services. In another example, Donna Kennedy (in 1997) expressed her concern about safety and security in her library after a colleague became the victim of a sexual assault by an intruder. Paul Deane (in 2004) was also fired after rejecting an order to send e-mail to registered voters requesting them to vote in support a mill rate increase. The paper focuses on Berman’s case, which pushed ALA to produce critical documents to define their stance on librarians’ speech rights. The study examines over sixty years of ALA’s efforts to safeguard intel- 07_63 1 asato 075-105.indd 77 9/30/14 2:51 PM 78 library trends/summer 2014 lectual freedom for some librarians. It will help to partially understand the evolving footsteps of ALA’s definition of librarians’ intellectual freedom—its depth and width, and the development of the defending mecha- nism. It demonstrates that ALA was far from completely united and con- sistent on the idea of defending librarians’ intellectual freedom. It creates a sharp contrast to that of the rights of library users, which have evolved and fortified as the association fought for it. Librarians’ Intellectual Freedom—Engaged as a Professional Although there were a few cases of dismissal of librarians who fought against censorship during the McCarthy period in 1950s, such as Ruth W. Brown (in 1950) and Emily Reed (in 1956), many more took place in the late 1960s when America experienced the social turmoil of Vietnam War and conflict over the rights of women, minorities, and gays and lesbians. Daniel Gore (in 1968), John Forsman (in 1968), and Richard Rosichan (in 1969) all defended library materials and consequently

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